


Blood Red

by hauntedpants



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), F/F, F/M, Gay Keith (Voltron), M/M, Minor Character Death(s), Misgendering, Trans Keith (Voltron), Trans Lance (Voltron), Trans Pidge | Katie Holt, broganes, but the opposite, idk if it counts, kind of, lance is a pilot in training, like the seeing colors when you meet your soulmate au, missing matt, nyma is kinda rude, shiro can drive, slowburn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-21
Updated: 2018-04-21
Packaged: 2019-04-25 23:20:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14389215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hauntedpants/pseuds/hauntedpants
Summary: Where you can see every colour except the colour of your soulmates eyes, and when you meet them the world turns completely to black and white except for anything your soulmate has come into contact with.-this has already been posted on wattpad but I'm moving it here slowly





	1. prologue

The small girl sat typing away furiously at her keyboard, her research coming up with nothing. She had to stop the colours from coming back.

A man sat at the table, dejectedly staring at the orange and blue postcard sitting across from him, knowing that he had to still be out there.

A boy with too many soulmates sat wondering if it would be worth it to meet them, to finally experience the colours that he couldn't see.

A girl sat crying, a rainbow of trinkets and jewellery spilled across her floor, that had previously been only silver and grey.

A man comforted the girl, only being able to see her vibrant colours, the rest of the world fading out around them.

Two boys circling each other's lives, never coming into contact, one in fear of losing his rainbow, and the other in a mad desperation to get rid of his.


	2. chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro smiled back.
> 
> As always.
> 
> And they pretended everything was okay

Red... that was all Keith could see. Red everywhere. It was like the blood was chasing him, trying to catch up with him before he met his soulmate.

His soulmate. That would be the only way to get rid of the gruesome colour haunting his dreams.

The colour on its own was fine. Some days he thought he would be fine. Some days he was.

But all it started with was picking up and apple,   
and hearing her whimper.   
Then staring at the maroon seats of the bus, and hearing his angry voice.   
And then hearing full on screams when a lady in a red trenchcoat passes in front of him.

He wishes he had the willpower to tear out his eyes.

But there's an easy way out.

To find the person who could end it all.

He knew whoever it was was close, because sometimes he would come across a bench that was suspiciously monochrome even though he knew it wasn't blue, which was apparently the colour his soulmates eyes were. Keith couldn't tell for sure, he'd never seen the colour. But things that would normally be in colour were stark black and white, so he knew that his other half was close.

The clear grey skies filled Keith's vision, their shouts eventually fading to the back of his mind. He focused on breathing in and out, The monochromatic shades of what would be blue soothing him. He'd always have the sky to save him. 

He got up off the grass of the park, and brushed of his jacket, picking up his brown messenger bag, and making his way to the bus stop to meet with Shiro, his legal guardian, and basically his big brother.

The older man was sitting on the bench, with his headphones in, listening to a fucking podcast.

Keith sighed and sat down beside the older man. Shiro took off his headphones and smiled warmly at keith.

"Did you get a chance to finish your homework last night?" Shiro asked.

"Most of it. I'm still struggling a bit with the last few questions" Keith says shrugging. Shiro acted happy but Keith knew better. Shiro was stressed about Matt. Understandably so, Shiro was just holding onto the fact that the only things he could see were either hazel or things that Matt had touched.

Keith used to be grossed out by how close Matt and Shiro were, but ever since Matt went missing, Shiro seemed so much more alone... and small.

It's a strange descriptor for such a buff person, but Shiro seemed to sink into the world more ever since the night Matt disappeared.

Both Matt's soulmates were worried sick as far as Keith could tell. His friend Pidge, Matt's younger sibling, was also Matt's soulmate. It's rare for siblings to be each other's soulmates. Sometimes in twins it is more common, but Pidge and Matt were several years apart. They had been so close before... everything happened. Pidge had come to a total of four classes in as many months and every one she had come to, she had been subdued and hadn't been paying attention at all. When he'd gone to her house to visit her, he'd noted that every inch of her room that wasn't occupied by crazy tracking technology was littered with dirty laundry and food wrappers.

The bus pulled up and Shiro and Keith made their way to the seats at the back where they sat normally.

"Colleen invited us to dinner tonight. Can you make it?" Shiro asked Keith, knowing that Keith would want to check in on Pidge. Shiro wanted to as well, seeing as the two shared their soulmate, Matt. Shiro would want to hear any new leads Pidge had. Keith just wanted to make sure Pidge was okay, that stupid child needed to learn some self-care.

It wasn't like he could always check in to make sure she was getting enough sleep, that would be weird. Sometimes Keith wished Pidge was his soulmate. Then he'd have an excuse to look after her, and of course, he would also get rid of the colours.

He'd never think of Pidge in any sort of gross way, but he cares so much about his younger friend, that being her soulmate to look after her would be worth the threats he'd get from her parents.

"Sure, you know I want to make sure the child's getting her proper eight hours of sleep and three meals a day." Keith said, smiling.

Shiro smiled back.

As always.

And they pretended everything was okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi! so,,,  
> its a weird first chapter, I'm sorry. maybe ill become less of a drama king as a writer later on in the story.


	3. chapter 3

Strewn across her desk were the newspapers from the past week. The headline on one read, "Altea Tragedy Shocks America." another reads, "Shocking Terrorism Strikes Fear into American Hearts."

On the other side of her desk, she edits strings of code with coffee-induced vigour, hacking into security camera footage records from the past week that filmed the highways going in and out of altea.

Sometimes to solve a case you had to piece together seemingly unrelated events.

So far nothing.

A knock on her door shakes her out of her trance and she calls out softly. The door creaks open and Keith pokes his head in.

"Good afternoon Pidge." He says with that fake smile. He had another breakdown today, she observes.

Pidge turns around and sticks her tongue out at him.   
"If you can find a place to sit you can hang with me." She says.

Keith cautiously picks his way through her stuff and sits down on her bed. He reaches over to her desk and his hand hovers over the newspapers for a hesitant second, then picking them up and flipping through them.

"Picked up the homework from Montgomery's class for you." He said.

"You know I'm not going to do it" Pidge snorted.

"Worth a shot." He shrugged.

"Any leads?" He asked, gesturing towards the code.

"Nope. Nothing. Just a few trucks going in and out of Altea a couple hours before the blast. Seriously. Nothing else. It's crazy."

"Weird." He says, returning his focus to the newspaper, furrowing his brows. He makes a noise and hands the paper back to pidge.

"Do you know if these are blue? Normally the New York Times print with colour." He asks.

Pidge tilts her hand and stares at the image on the cover, a map of altea. Or what was Altea. 

"No... mom said it was green and red." She says, her eyes widening.

"Did anyone else touch these that you know of?" Keith asks, excitement evident in his voice. Pidge knew how much this meant to him. Her mind was cranking its gears and an idea flickered into life.

She had witnessed Keith panicking too many times to count because of his colours. She had purposefully kept her room cool and green, the opposite of the dreaded red colour, just so that Keith would have a safe space at her house.

"A friend of Hunk's dropped off the papers this morning. You wouldn't know him. His names Lance. He's in Hunk's class."

"Lance. I need to find him." Keith urges, his eyes watering. Pidge has only seen him cry three times in as many years. This is a big deal, she can feel it.

"I'm going to text him and we'll arrange for you two to meet." She says, brainstorming a plan all the while.

"Thank you thank you thank you pidgeon" Keith says, hugging her. The brief intimate moment loosens the tension in the air, allowing the tears to fade from their eyes. Pidge pulls out her phone and goes to the contact labelled "fresh dick


	4. chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> we see something about lance

Lance loved colours. He loved the way rainbows looked shimmering in the sky. He loved brightly coloured art pieces and the strange mishmash of outfits he saw new soulmates wear. They had no idea how goofy and bright and beautiful they looked.

Lance did not have any desire to find his own soulmate. Give up the colour in his world for a person???? Fuck no.

Lance made his way to class that morning with anxiety brewing in the pit of his stomach. He knew Pidge wanted to meet with him after school that day, and for Pidge to text him that far in advance meant it was surely serious. They didn't mention why though, and that was what was causing his inner organs to feel like they were being tossed in a salad spinner.

Reaching his class, an arm wrapped around his shoulders and Lance was greeted with the cheerful face of his best friend, Hunk.

Wordlessly, the two boys made their way to class like that, ignoring the stares from classmates. Many of their peers thought they were dating, but no. Despite both experiencing attraction towards men, they both preferred staying close friends. Just because they were close, doesn't mean they had to be dating, and seniors in high school just didn't really get that.

"Pidge wanted to see me after school. Any idea why?" Lance asked, his curiosity and anxiety urging him to inquire his friend.

"What? Really? What about?" Hunk asked.

"Dunno. She just said for me to meet with her at her place. Told me to be prepared to stay for supper."

"Maybe she got some new leads on Matt?" Hunk asked, brainstorming. Lance wished Pidge had some new leads. Whenever she hit a roadblock on their search, they always seemed so lost, and hopeless. She just wanted to find her brother, her soulmate.

"Maybe, but she'd probably be more excited if that was the case."

"Who knows. Want me to go with you?" Hunk asked. Hunk typically had anxiety just as bad as Lance's, maybe even worse, but things were always easier for them to do if they were doing it for each other.

"Nah, I think I'll be fine. I've just got to get through today and then I'll find out what she wants to talk about." Lance said, smiling at his friend.

***

Knocking on Pidge's door, Lance stood outside in the cold rain of early November, waiting for Colleen to answer. He'd only known Pidge for two years. Last year Pidge had been in grade twelve, even though she was two years younger than him. She had bonded with Hunk over their love of computers and technology, and in turn befriended Lance, albeit hesitantly.

He wasn't as good of a friend to her as Hunk but he still tried to help her find leads, like with the newspapers he dropped off the other day. He'd noticed those and thought it would be something she'd want to see. In that moment in time he wondered if that's why she'd wanted him to come.

He didn't have to wait much longer, because at that moment, it was Pidge rather than Colleen to open the door and welcome the Cuban boy inside.

"Hey dude, thanks for coming, this is really important." Pidge said, giddy almost, if lance didn't know better.

"What's up? Why am I here?" Lance asked, sitting down on the couch across from the younger androgynous kid.

"I know who your soulmate is." Pidge said, cutting to the point, and Lance froze. He knew something like this would come one day, he just hoped it wouldn't be for another decade.

It was no secret to him that Pidge was in contact with Lance's soulmate. A lot of stuff in Pidge's house had taken on monochromatic hues, and he assumed it was because his soulmate came to Pidge's place often.

He hadn't really talked to Pidge about it for two reasons. One, being that he'd only come to Pidge's house for the first time the other day, and two, Lance really didn't want Pidge to try and figure out who his soulmate was.

"Who?" He asked, carefully hidden terror running through his veins.

"His names Keith Kogane. He's a friend of me and Hunk who goes to the same uni as me."

"Great. Tell him I'll meet him after I'm at least in my twenties. I'm not ready to give up my colours." Lance said, standing up.

"No! You can't!" Pidge said, as Lance hurried out the door. This whole thing was obviously set up so that they could have some sort of magical meeting for the first time. A meeting that would strip him of one of his biggest joys. Colour.

Lance walked down the cold street, noticing the thunder clouds converging over the city, purposefully ignoring the shouts of Pidge.


	5. Chapter 5

Keith was on his way to Pidge's place when his phone buzzed in his pocket.

The caller id showed Pepe so he knew it was pidge.

"Hey pidge" Keith said into the phone.

"Bad news buddy. Lance reacted badly when I told him I found his soulmate. He stormed out saying something about how he wanted to keep his colours"

"That asshat!" Keith said, but his eyes started to well up with tears that he quickly blinked away.

"Do you still want to come over? You're always welcome, and I'm pretty sure you could use some company" pidge offered.

"Sure." Keith said, voice tinged with anger and frustration. All he wanted was to be alone. The red was closing in again and the whispers were becoming louder with every step.

He started to sprint to Pidge's house, only a few blocks away.

As he turned the corner, a big fat raindrop landed on his nose. He wouldn't mind seeing some of this "blue" colour if it meant he could get rid of the violent red.

By the time he reached Pidge's lawn, the clouds had begun to drop sheets of rain, dulling the world down into grey hues.

His hand froze at the door, seeing how the normally green chipped paint had turned a shade of grey. His soulmate had been here.

He surged forward, not caring about how stupid he must seem.

Its just a soulmate

Pidge hugged him the second he got in which was unusual for two reasons. One, Pidge never liked hugging anyone. Two, keith was soaking wet.

He buried his face in her neck, trying to even his breaths.

"It's alright. Go up to my room?" The younger girl asked. Keith nodded weakly and Pidge guided him to her bed and thrust some tissues into his hands which he messily used to clean up his face.

A dripping interrupted his confusion and panic for a moment, for him to focus on the growing puddle seeping through the floorboards of her room. He laughed a little bit. A sniffly wet laugh.

"I'm getting your room wet."

"My room thanks you. I can never turn it on these days" Pidge says. Keith snorts out a laugh and peels off his jacket, and takes one of Pidge's blankets.

"Oh great, just take MY blankets to dry off see if I care" Pidge says, but Keith knows she's joking because of her soft eyes trying to assure him it would be okay.

The silence filled the room, thickening the air. Sorrow and frustration clouding their heads.

"You know, I used to be super scared of coming out." Pidge said slowly.

"I've always thought you were super confident about your gender" Keith said.

"Nah. I was so scared to face my family that I avoided them at all costs. Even Matt." Pidge gulped. Keith had stopped crying and was paying attention.

"And then when I finally got the courage to tell them I was a girl, none of them were anywhere to be found!" Pidge laughed. "I was furious. But a week later I came home from school and Matt had totally decorated the house all blue pink and white. He'd touched all the decorations so I'd be able to see them. I was so emotional I ended up crying so hard I couldn't even get the words out."

"Matt literally came out for you. Wow. That's a new record for best brotherly acts of love"

"Yeah but he revoked that when he fucking disappeared." Pidge snorted ruefully. "Anyways, my point is, lance will come around eventually. He's just being a dick."

"N-no! I mean I wouldn't want to take away his colours from him without his permission." Keith said, looking down at his hands and his fingerless gloves.

"No colours could be more important than helping you cope with your ptsd." Pidge urged. Keith was way to soft sometimes, despite his fierce exterior.

"I guess... but I can give him some time. We'll meet eventually, and I'm sure he has his own reasons." Keith reasoned, despite the hot anger still bubbling in his gut.

Keith felt the soft texture of Pidge's hair brush against his neck as his friend laid her head on his shoulder, and the darkness of night time crawled into the room. Stars began to speckle the violet sky outside the window.

The two kids sat there, in the cool darkening room, the smell of blue smoke and vanilla filling their nostrils, breathing in the comfort of their company and exhaling their sorrows.


	6. chapter 5

Here's a bit of backstory for lance, because it kinda seems random that he's so angry about losing his colours, in a society where black and white symbolizes love.

Lance had locked himself in his room for the past two days, which was hard since he shared his room with his younger sister, only two years younger than him.

Whenever Stella came in, Lance was curled up with his laptop, or working on solving problems in his textbook in preparation for Galaxy Garrison University. He might be holing up in his room, but he's still dedicated to getting into the school.

On the third day, lance was startled out of an interesting article, by Stella storming in and tossing her bag in front of her older brother.

"Get over yourself. What the hell is wrong with you?" she asked.

Lance was dumbfounded, Stella hardly ever raised her voice at him.   
"I... I'm dealing with tough shit." Lance said.  
"Tough shit? You know what's tough?! Watching my big brother wallow in misery all day and night. You're still young like me, why do you have to act like you're a thirty five year old freelance writer who barely makes enough money to pay bills? Why can't you be a normal teen and not sulk over a boy all day?!"

"How'd you know it's about a boy?" Lance interjected.

A strange grin settled over her face and the let out a laugh.   
"Aha! So it is a boy! What's his name?" She asked, anger turning into curiosity as she sat down in front of him. Her quick mood swing surprised Lance, but he recovered quickly.   
"I haven't met him but Pidge says he's my soulmate."

"Your soulmate!! Oh my gosh! Why do you get to find your soulmate at seventeen and I haven't even gotten a girlfriend yet!" She whined. She stopped when she saw Lance's face.   
"Oh... you don't want to lose your colours." She said softly, remembering what it was like so long ago.

When Lance painted nothing but a burning rainbow coloured sky for seven months. Over that time he had went through one of the most memorable moments in his life. 

He was thirteen, freshly shorn hair, and had a new skateboard. His family had saved up enough money for him to go on an exchange trip to New Zealand for a week.

Along with Hunk and six other students, Lance was a part of Garrison Middle's exposure trip.

Getting ready for the flight was super stressful for lance, stuffing everything into it's correct bags and making sure everything would get through security alright.

Thankfully all the students exited the security stations with all their belongings, and a time and number for their flight.

And then the wait.

Lance was nervous for the flight as he had never been in a plane before in his life. They were flying economy and he had heard too many horror stories about screaming babies and bad service.

Hunk reassured him as they waited in cold metal seats. Two other kids from their exposure group were goofing off blowing bubbles with their bubblegum in each other's faces. They were loud, lance wasn't ready, and they weren't helping his anxiety.

And then a voice came over the speakers and the kids stood up and walked towards the entrance of the plane. Lances stomach was churning in anticipation and the journey through the walkway sent chills up his spine.

A flight attendent helped him through the door of the aircraft and helped Hunk and him find their seats. Lance of course took the window seat despite Hunk's protests.

After twenty more minutes of waiting, lances anxiety had eased, until the taxi began. As the plane rumbled along and started to lift off the ground Lance flung his arm out and grabbed Hunk's wrist. All the pent up anxiety from the security, the waiting and the walking around was pounding in the inside of his skull. Hunk patted Lance's shoulder and the two boys tried to help ease each other's tension.

After the initial anxiety and ear popping, Lance was finally able to muster the courage to look out his window, and boy was it worth it.

He was floating over a soft blanket of fluffy white clouds woven with brilliant hues of orange, gold, pink and red, the sun setting in the distance, causing the sky to turn a brilliant shade of blue, fading into a deep navy colour, speckled with pinpricks of light he knew to be stars on the other side. Lance had forgotten how to breathe, and he knew that if a heaven existed that this was it, this beautiful rainbow of the sky and earth colliding.

It was at that moment that lance knew that he would be fine if he never got to meet his soulmate, as long as he got to see this beautiful sight more often than this.

He spent seven months trying to recreate the breathtaking view on a canvas, as well as devising a plan to begin taking flight school courses.

By the time he was sixteen he had gotten his private pilot license, and he was well on his way to becoming a commercial pilot.

Just to be able to see this view while he was working.

And now that may never happen, because no soulmate of his can touch the sky.


	7. chapter 6

Keith's world had calmed significantly since the night when he stayed over at Pidge's house, the two of them staying up late to watch horror movies and just enjoy each other's company.

After he had gotten back into the routine of school, he had gotten better at keeping himself together.

He attended his university lectures and took notes. He was a great student and he tried to reflect that in his studies.

He pushed Lance to the back of his mind and focused on what mattered. Making sure Shiro was okay, and getting good grades.

It was seven days later that Keith ran into Hunk at the post office. Literally.

"Oh! Hey Keith!" Hunk said, surprise, recognition and something else wavering in his eyes.

"Uh... hey Hunk" Keith said with a small smile.

"What're you here for?" Hunk asked.

"I'm expecting a package. I ordered a new jacket." He said with a smile.

"Cool. Um... can I talk to you? Maybe in private?" Hunk asked quietly.

"Sure...?" Mumbled Keith with uncertainty, instantly on edge.

The two boys walked out into the cool fall air. Keith leant against the wall of the post office to portray an air of relaxed suaveness. He was kinda failing, but hunk seemed to be dealing with just as much anxiety as Keith.

"Lance... Lance isn't in a good place right now. I asked Pidge about it and she told me what's going on." Hunk said.

"Why is he so against meeting me?" Keith couldn't help but ask.

Hunk let out a sigh and breathed out a plume of condensation. "He's always been really infatuated with colours. Ever since we went on that flight to New Zealand he's been in love with the sky. He's a cheesy romantic but I mean, so am I. He doesn't want to give up his colours because he'd never be able to see the sky again." Hunk said softly.

Keith looked down slightly, blushing from embarrassment, as if hearing something extremely personal about Hunk himself.

Hunk sighed. "I care about lance so much. I want him to be happy but... I also want him to find his soulmate, y'know?"

Keith looked up at Hunk and nodded slightly. "I... I don't want to guilt him into anything he doesn't want to do, but... I need to get rid of my colours. Really badly." As he said those words he started to choke up. No, he thought I am not crying here.

He lifted his head and looked into hunks eyes.

They were cold.

"So the only reason you want to meet Lance is so that you can get rid of your colours?" He asked, The softness from his voice disappearing. It wasn't a big change, but it was enough to have an impact on Keith.   
"If you think I'm going to help you because of that, you're wrong Keith. Lance should meet you when both of you are willing to meet each other. Not when both of you care about something as stupid as colours."

Hunk hitched his bag higher up onto his shoulder and spun around, heading back to his home, leaving Keith melting in a puddle of guilt and terror.

***

"Not when both of you care about something as stupid as colours"

Hunks anxiety eats him as he runs over the words in his mouth again and again on his way home. The words that sounded so sensible at the time, gradually seemed to become more insensitive each time he went over them.

He had been living most of his life colour blind, except for Shay and Lance's colours. Of course he would be less sensitive to the whole soulmate situation.

He could barely remember what some colours looked like it was so distant of a memory. Neither lance nor shay ever wore purple. Hunk didn't miss purple. How could he miss something he barely remembered?

Hunk had met Shay when he was very young, and his mothers had explained to him what soulmates were, much earlier than other kids learned about that sort of thing.

Shay and he almost never left each other's side.

In middle school, when Hunk met Lance, he was scared.

Lance showed no signs of reciprocating the soul bond, so Hunk simply tried to become the best possible friend for Lance.

Living with two soulmates was probably a gift, but by never telling Lance, Hunk had turned it into his own curse.

Of course, he could never lie to Shay successfully, so she knew, but he had to conceal the fact that he could also see Lance's colours from everyone else, including Lance.

Hunk was happy that Lance didn't reciprocate if it meant Lance still got that happy surge from simply seeing the sky.

Sometimes Hunk thought the sky was Lance's soulmate.

Aside from Lance, Hunk tried to push colours to the back of his mind. He hadn't ever cared that he lost his colours, but he wasn't complaining when he saw coloured objects that Lance or Shay had touched.

Hunk would settle for his beautiful black and white world, save for his soulmates.

**Author's Note:**

> if anyone wants to see the version that will get updated sooner go check it out on wattpad, my username is   
> silver-spirit


End file.
